Physical Mastery

In fact, managing or staying on any kind of normal diet will be close to impossible. This is especially true if you’re in a place where options are very limited.

Luckily for you, science has given us a lot of revealing information about dietary nutrition and the way our physiology works. The fitness industry has evolved in leaps and bounds over the last several years because of the studies and research that have been done in the current decade.

New theories have come out with methods promising better results when it comes to nutrition, physical fitness, and anything else involving the way you look and feel.

While deciding to go on a 12 day cruise, I realized that I was going to have to play it smart and do my homework. Up until the day of my flight to Florida I managed to decrease my body fat and get pretty shredded.

I didn’t want all of that work to be for nothing. That’s when I discovered the following methods below. You don’t have to use each one of these, but the more you use the better off you’ll be.

Let’s get started…

#1: Intermittent fasting

When thinking about ways I could stay lean and keep my body fat as low as possible, the first thing the came to mind was intermittent fasting.

Intermittent fasting has various benefits, one of the most attractive being that you can eat whatever you want as long as it’s within a certain period of time. The most popular way of doing it right now is by using a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour window of eating whatever you want.

A lot of people claim their ability to stay shredded all year round is because of intermittent fasting. It has even been shown to help reduce body fat, build muscle, prevent cancer and even help you live longer.

For even better results, make sure you are timing your workouts right before you have a big meal, so the calories can be used as efficiently as possible.

Of course, that brings me to the next one which is also pretty obvious and that is working out.

#2: Working Out Hard Every Day (And Lifting Heavy & Intense)

My goal here is to not only lift hard but very heavy and with very little rest. Now I don’t recommend a lot of people do this especially if you’re new to lifting weights.

But if possible, give each workout the intensity you need to stimulate muscle building and hypertrophy. I would keep the workouts focused mostly on compound movements like the bench press, deadlifts, squats, and overweight press, centered around major muscle groups.

In other words, if you’re on vacation for a long period of time, you’ll basically be bulking. Your calories will already be in a surplus, so you may as well get the most out of it. Your goal should then be focused on putting on size.

Doing a small light workout is not going to demand much energy from the body. On the other side, doing heavy workouts that really stresses the muscles will better use the calories from your meal because it would need both the energy to refuel as well as rebuild the muscles that have just been annihilated during your workout.

Something else worth mentioning is that I usually have a pretty active lifestyle and vacation. Results will vary if you are just laying out by the pool and drinking margaritas for most of the day.

My vacations usually include hiking, climbing, exploring, scuba diving, and anything else that gets my adrenaline pumping. The heavy lifting gym sesh will the icing on top of my already active vacation.

I could eat all day long but as long as I’m active, the majority of those calories can be burned off.

Just be as active as possible.

#3: Meal Replacements: 100% Food FTW

The second obvious choice would be the use of meal replacements. These could be things like protein bars, or even powders that you mix with water or milk in a blender. They are meant to give you a full spectrum of carbs fats and proteins and essentially replace a meal.

My favorite meal replacement to date is 100% Food. This product by Space Nutrients Station has options ranging from 500 to 700 cal. You even have the choice of protein from plant, soy, and of course whey.

They all come in individual bottles which makes meal prepping pretty simple. Their macros are on point and they have high enough calories that can even help me reach my caloric goals as I need to. They consist of multiple super foods and is probably going to be the healthiest meal replacement you can find.

For my trip, I can pack 24 of these meals, each one being 628 calories. This means I can have two of them each day, getting nearly 1300 cals that are actually from a nutritious and healthy food source.

I can even add protein bars in addition to the two shakes a day, and really get a good percentage of my caloric goals eliminated.

P.S: If a lot of this sounds foreign to you, and you have no clue what nutrient goals or macros or any of that even means, I have a future post coming that will explain that in more detail.

#4: Cheat With Intelligence (Don’t Get Caught!)

This is an obvious one or at least I hope so. By cheat intelligently, I mean that you have to make sure you’re getting enough protein each day.

The LAST thing you want to do is lose muscle. Instead of ordering a pound of pasta for example, you can also add a chicken breast or some kind of protein source to every meal.

It’s very easy to just load up on carbs all day which could contribute to a lot of weight gain. I’m not saying that I’ll be avoiding them, but I will make sure I maximize the amount of protein I’m taking in at every chance.

Even while eating out you can try to remain as healthy as possible. You could order from a menu a 12 ounce sirloin with a side of brown rice and sweet potato, for example.

I know…this is where you’ll need to use some will power. If I can have just a little self control, I can still have a delicious meal when I go out to eat, and not have to order a million other appetizers along with it.

#5: Use a “Nutrient Repartitioning Agent”

Like a lot of the new research coming out about nutrition, science has found ingredients and compounds that have shown to reduce absorption of certain carbs, making them perfect for supplement companies to take advantage of.

Now, with products like Glycolog by Blackstone Labs, Cheaters by BSN, indigo-3G and even one that’s actually called CHEATmeals, they are all over!

So which one do I recommend?

I personally use a product called Glucose Disposal Agent by 1st Phorm. They are a solid company with a 110% money back guarantee on their stuff. I haven’t used many of the other products but 1st Phorm has never let me down with their quality of ingredients, so I saw no reason to switch.

#6: Take a Thermogenic Fat Burner

Of course, for obvious reasons we’re throwing this advice in there. If you’re going to be stuffing your face with whatever you want, why NOT use a fat burner? Of course you’re not going to stay 100% shredded if you’re eating anything in sight, but you can at least try to reduce the damage you do.

We ARE doing damage. There is no doubt about it. But with damage control methods like these it can be very minimal, and sometimes not even noticeable.

A good fat burner won’t prevent you from adding extra body fat if you don’t use some kind of diet. But it WILL give you is energy, help curb your appetite, and boost your metabolism.

If you’re a guy, I recommend the Commander Go Pack, and if you’re a girl then go with the Bliss Go Pack. They should help do the trick.

Using a fat burner 2-3 times a day along with a Nutrient Repartitioning Agent can help keep you in maximum leanness despite the 800 calorie cheesecake you’ve been eyeing up.

BONUS TIP: If you take a lot of supplements, it can be really hard to stuff 8-10 bottles of pills in your suitcase. It is not only a hassle, but takes up a lot of time.

Instead, use a supplement organizer. You can take 10 different bottles of stuff, and have an entire week supply in the same space that it takes you to add one or two big bottles of supplements.

Plus, you get the extra convenience of knowing exactly what you need to take and at once time (I know, taking a lot of stuff can be a real pain in the ass)

Now Relax – It’s Time to Enjoy Yourself

Alright, so now you know what to do to stay shredded, burn fat and lose weight while you’re traveling or on vacation. The most important thing you can do now is relax. You’re going to be on vacation for goodness sake. If fitness is causing you stress even when it’s time to go on your long awaited getaway, then that’s a sign that you are getting too out of touch with what life is all about.

Life is meant to be enjoyed. And vacations are one of those times where you really get to let loose and truly live it up. Don’t overthink each and every one of the meals you have, and then beat yourself up over it and feel guilty while hanging out in the Bahamas!

With the above 6 tips, you can still eat whatever you want, let go, and still look pretty amazing no matter how much you ate or alcohol you consumed.

On that note, please drink responsibly.

If you’re going on vacation soon or already did, let me know where you guys went! Do you have any tips or advice that you do while you’re on vacation that helped keep you looking good? I’d love to hear some more feedback.

As we grow older, we tend to experience frequent pains or aches. Like when we pull a muscle doing a squat, or feeling frequent discomfort in the rotator cuff, joints, and lower back throughout the day.

If you’re only in your early 20s (or maybe even younger!) you might even wonder what’s wrong with you. But truthfully, it doesn’t just have to do with age. Statistics say that nearly 50 million Americans which make up about 38 percent of the population in the United States, have chronic or severe pain.[1] Another shocking fact is that 38 percent of people in the US have taken a painkiller in 2015. That’s 1 in 3! people! Pretty sad when you think about it.

With that said, most of us could relate to severe pains especially among us athletes, powerlifters, and people always on the go. Fortunately, there’s a way to manage the pains you might be experiencing, and you can do it without the drugs, surgery or medication. Just dedicate 4 minutes of your time and practice “The Egoscue Method” to achieve better posture to alleviate the pain.

Having a proper posture and body alignment prevents us from experiencing injuries and other chronic pains. When our body is aligned properly, our spine will be unstressed, letting our muscles work the way they are supposed to. When it’s not, they will compress on one another, creating stresses all along the body, which could cause imbalances anywhere.

Pete Egoscue, a Vietnamese veteran, suffered from hip, back and leg injuries for a long time until he discovered a unique form of exercise that resolved his chronic pain. Because of this, the exercises were then named after him and was called the “The Egoscue Method”, which addresses pain through proper body alignment and breathing. It boasts a 94 percent success rate[4] and even inspired a best selling book called Pain Free Living, which you can buy on Amazon.

What exactly is this Egoscue Method?

It’s a postural therapy designed to eliminate chronic pain without the need for drugs or surgery. It focuses on a series of gentle stretches and exercises which corrects that misalignments of the musculoskeletal system of the body. The core belief of this method is that all the pains we experience are mainly due to the misalignment in our body losing its proper posture. Once gravity then comes into play, then problems will begin to arise.[5]

This therapy has also been used for back pain relief and considered to be a natural remedy for pain in the joints and bones.

If you like what you have read so far, here are some of the fundamentals in the Egoscue Method and how it can help you control your pain particularly the ones you experience on a daily basis…

Egoscue 101

Assessing your postural Alignment

In conducting a proper alignment that is pain free, look at the position of your head with regards to your hips first. If your head is too far forward, your spine becomes stressed. Correcting this however isn’t as simple as pulling your neck back according to Bradley. What you can do instead is to focus on your pelvis which is the center of gravity. He explained, “Once the pelvis is repositioned and the person becomes hip-driven, the head will position itself automatically.”

It may sound easy but it is far more complicated than that. Bradly teaches us a simple exercise to make sure that our body aligns correctly.

We first pigeon-toe our feet or point our toes inwards so that they touch together. Next, we then tighten up our thigh muscles which will give us the feeling of sticking out our bums. Maintain this for one minute with your shoulders relaxed then have someone take a photo of you in your current position. Doing this will help you observe how your head position would be in line with your ankles.

Resolving your painful, shallow breathing

Problem: Have you ever noticed that when you breathe, your diaphragm sits at the base of your rib cage? Do you feel that your breath might actually be stuck there? Well, there is a nerve that runs to the diaphragm which helps you located on your neck. When your head is far forward than it should normally be, this creates a kink in the spinal cord which interrupts the brain’s message to breathe hence the feeling of your breath getting stuck. It will then result to shallow and often painful breathing in a north-south motion rather than it expanding in an east-west motion. Our diaphragm is meant to expand out, not upwards otherwise it won’t fully “empty” your lungs. Once this happens, you will be putting extreme stress on the other parts of your body particularly the neck and the chest leading to more pains.

Solution: To get your breathing back to normal, again, find the body on its natural alignment by putting your hands around your waist and by inhaling and exhaling deeply. Doing this should expand the diaphragm outward upon exhaling instead of having your shoulders-up, shoulders-down motion. In yoga, these are called belly breaths where you let your belly expand with each breathing. You can repeat it and practice it a few times to observe how it feels.

To get your breathing back on track and help your body find its natural alignment, put your hands around your waistline and take a deep breath in and out. Your diaphragm should expand outward (east-west) when you breathe in, instead of upward in a shoulders-up, shoulders-down motion, notes Bradley. If you practice yoga, think of these as belly breaths — letting your belly expand with each breath. Practice a few times and see how it feels.

Getting rid of pain while sitting

Problem: This one is something that I also need. There will be days where long hours of sitting would be inevitable like when you are travelling or sitting inside an office the whole day. We can use this method to relieve the discomforts that we experience during these times.

Solution: The key here is to flatten out the lumbar spine. Achieve this by rolling up a small pillow or jacket and place it behind the base of your seat. Once you do this, push yourself towards the back pressing your tailbone against the roll. This will then force your upper back into properly aligning with the seat. This will relieve the stress because you will be honing the natural curvature of your back.

Using postural Alignment to increase energy

Problem: This also comes in handy especially when we get burned out and need to refuel with energy. We can do this by improving our lymphatic flow. Keep in mind that our body pumps upward, which means that if you are out of your proper alignment, there will be inevitable build up in the lymph system from the hips down. Especially around the pelvic girdle and hip joints because of the fluids trapped at the cellular level.

Solution: To prevent this, stack the joints properly on your toes, ankles, knees and hips. Do this by putting your hands behind your head with your elbows being extended back and your shoulders pulled down. Observe how when you take a step, your entire foot strikes the floor. This is a key signal to inform you that from head to toe, you are holding a posture which allows the lymph fluids to flow. Until your body will hold a good posture on its own. You’d be surprised of the relief that you would feel after trying these exercises!

Keeping extra weight off can be a very tricky affair. It’s a problem so common these days that it has already spurned countless quick fixes that can be anything from dieting hacks to detoxification guides. And since this issue is so rampant, more and more of these quick fixes are still being released to the public until now.

However, a study recently published in the American Journal of Physiology points out that high-intensity interval training or HIIT could be the solution to do away with excess pounds once and for all. HIIT is basically a type of training where a particular activity like a short sprint is performed to the point of exhaustion.

After that, it is followed by two to four minutes of rest or “active recovery period” in technical terms, and then the whole process is repeated all over. According to the study published in the American Journal of Physiology, the same amount of calories is burned during a 20-minute HIIT workout as compared to a full hour of exercise done in moderate intensity.

The researchers of the study emphasized that what makes HIIT really innovative compared to common weight loss quick fixes like low-calorie diets is its simplicity to integrate in a long-term plan. The most common effect of being in a low-calorie diet is a persistent change in mood due to the drop in blood sugar levels as well as hormonal swings.

The constant fluctuations in blood sugar levels also put you in a perpetual grudge match against your willpower, which could lead to an unexpected halt in your journey to keeping excess pounds off. If you’ve already gone through a low-calorie diet, chances are you have experienced this one, too.

It’s still not too late when it comes to keeping excess weight off. Why not delve more into HIIT to find out how you can make it work to your full advantage?

Having bad posture doesn’t just make you look bad. You’re also going to feel a whole lot of aches and pains sooner or later resulting from the misaligned muscles and joints. And if that doesn’t sound scary enough, your risk of getting spinal injury is also going to increase in a significant way.

But here’s the thing. Contrary to popular belief, bad posture can still be fixed. If you’re looking to do just that, then you’ve definitely come to the right place. Here are a few simple yet effective ways to help you improve your posture fast.

Watch your pelvis.

Now while this may sound strange, you’d have to keep your pelvis in check if you’re looking to improve your posture. See, the pelvis is the body’s center of gravity. The farther your head is from its ideal pelvic positioning, the more stress is forced on the spine.

One simple way to check if you’re having this problem is to grab your smartphone…while standing with pigeon-toed feet. This basically means your feet should be side by side with the toes touching. Relax your shoulders, but tighten up your thigh muscles. You’ll know if you are doing it right if you feel that your butt is sticking out.

Have someone snap a picture of you in this position. If your head is aligned with your pelvis and ankles, your posture isn’t that problematic. However, if your head is too forward while you’re in this position, you’ll need to practice this exercise more often.

Practice breathing control.

Your breathing patterns can have a positive or negative effect on your overall posture. One way to ensure that you’re doing it right is taking deep breaths while putting your hands around your waistline. You should feel that your diaphragm should expand outward and not upward when you inhale.

This takes a bit of practice, but you’re sure to reap the benefits when you master it as you go along.

Take advantage of your spine’s natural curvature.

Did you know that your spine has a natural curvature that you can take full advantage of to maintain proper posture? This can even alleviate the pain that you usually go through during extremely long car rides and flights that can really be a bother.

The next time you’re going to sit down for a long time, make it a point to roll a small towel or jacket and place it on the location of your tailbone, which is just above your buttocks. Press against it while you’re sitting and voila! You’ve got your spine properly aligned.

Boost lymphatic flow.

Having low lymphatic flow levels doesn’t just mean that your posture needs improvement. It also means that your energy is going to wane faster than it should. Keep in mind to “stack” or position your joints properly, namely your hips, knees, ankles and toes, when you’re walking, lifting or doing some other full body activity to keep your lymphatic flow ideal.